


Unfinished Business

by MellodramaticLawliet



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Grim Reapers, M/M, based on an episode of the twilight zone, klance
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-07-15
Updated: 2018-07-31
Packaged: 2018-12-02 08:49:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 6
Words: 17,340
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11505888
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MellodramaticLawliet/pseuds/MellodramaticLawliet
Summary: Lance is given a choice, but a little extra time might come with more than he'd bargained for...





	1. Mulletman

"Oh come on!" Lance stumbled as someone jostled into him, nearly spilling his drink over Hunk's exasperated expression, "Just like, five more minutes!"

He grinned as the stereo hit a new level of earsplitting, and the crush of bodies around them cheered appreciatively. Lance lived for this sort of thing: the energy, the laughter, the smell of alcohol and regret, the beat of the music that sounded vaguely like a transformer having sex with a trash compacter… Who said college wasn't a place to party?

"No, Lance," Hunk shook his head in exasperation as he reached out to steady him, "You promised me we would only stay at this frat party for like, an _hour_ max. It's been at least two!"

"But Hunk!" Lance protested as Hunk attempted to shoo him toward the door, "I've been flirting with this girl for almost an hour, she's totally into me! Just five more minutes... Pleeease?"

Lance swiftly conjured up his best pouty face and resisted the urge to grin as Hunk grimaced in response, knowing there was no way he would stand a chance against his infamous puppy eyes.

"Ugh…" Hunk rubbed at his temples, "Pidge said she'd kill us if you came to lab class hung over again... Remember last time when you almost drank part of our experiment?"

"It was only a small beaker." Lance rolled his eyes, winking when a cute girl glanced his way and giggled.

"It was 18 molar sulfuric acid!"

"I can totally score a date this time, and then I'll owe you for life..." Lance stuck out his bottom lip and watched triumphantly as Hunk's expression wavered, " _Or_ , I'll bring you free coffee from the cafe for the next _week_."

Hunk sighed and pulled at his bandanna anxiously, "Fine. Five more minutes."

"Yes!" Lance jumped up, nearly spilling his drink on himself, "Be right back."

Half an hour later Hunk and Lance found themselves stumbling back to their dorm room. Well, Lance was stumbling. Hunk was half walking, half carrying him as he stumbled.

"Wow." Lance chuckled, pressing the tissue harder against his nose as the bleeding increased, "Rolo really _does_ have a wicked right hook."

Hunk glanced down at him unamusedly as they climbed the stairs toward their floor, "Yeah I see that... why did you keep flirting with Nyma?"

"Hmm," Lance deliberated for a moment, "Because she's cute, and seemed into me?"

Hunk shook his head exasperatedly, "What are we going to do with you?"

Lance apparently thought this was hilarious, and a fresh wave of blood stained the tissue as he snorted, deeply concerning Hunk who kept muttering about getting his nose checked out. Lance's amusement was short lived however, as the door to their room swung open and Pidge stood on the threshold, arms crossed, expression disappointed.

"All I ask is that you don't get dunk on the nights we have early lab. All I ask!" She threw up her hands and ushered them into the room.

"Uhh Pidge?" Hunk arched an eyebrow as he dumped Lance unceremoniously onto his bed, "Not that I don't totally enjoy seeing your face at all hours of the night, but how exactly did you get in here?"

"I copied your key card."

"Of course you did."

"Guys." Lance muttered with his face half obscured by his pillow, "I'm not _that_ drunk."

Hunk grabbed a pencil off his desk and tossed it toward him, "Lance, catch."

The pencil bounced off his shoulder as his hand waved around halfheartedly in Hunk's general direction.

"Dude, you're pretty drunk." Pidge nudged him with her finger.

"Oh come on, I'm not…" Lance lifted his head off the pillow to retort, and quickly trailed off as he caught sight of a guy standing in the corner that he was sure hadn't been there five seconds before, "Uhh, who's your friend?"

"Huh?" Pidge frowned and followed his gaze toward the corner of the room where the guy was casually leaning on Lance's desk, "Who?"

"Ummm, your friend." Lance sat up fully and pointed, "The attractive guy currently introducing his butt to my biology textbook."

"Uh, Lance, buddy?" Hunk gently placed a large hand over Lance's forehead, "there's no one there."

"Oh come on, he's right there!" Lance smacked Hunk's hand away and watched as the guy's eyes widened and he glanced around in confusion, as if he thought Lance was addressing another invisible person in the room, "The one with the red jacket and mullet."

"Okay and now the invisible man has a mullet." Hunk frowned, "You didn't take any drugs while we were at that party did you? Because I know we talked about this and we both agreed – "

"No, Hunk," Lance tried to stand, sinking back down when his legs didn't seem to want to work properly, "I'm not high, there's a guy sitting on my desk."

"Maybe you should just go to bed." Pidge patted his pillow invitingly, "Let us deal with Mullet Man, and you just sleep off the alcohol before you try to drink our experiment again, huh?"

Lance glanced toward the mysterious guy, who was now staring at him with a strange intensity, and nodded slowly. Maybe he was just hallucinating… He had eaten a brownie at the party earlier, but he could've sworn Nyma told him they weren't laced.

Oh well, he would just sleep whatever it was off and deal with Pidge's disappointment in the morning. It's not like this was the first time his partying had interfered with their lab class.

Shooting the hallucination one last suspicious glance, Lance reluctantly sank back into his pillow, wondering how in the world his lumpy dorm mattress could feel this close to heaven on earth. Hunk shook his head and gently pulled the covers up over his shoulders as Pidge knelt to fish her sleeping bag out from under the bed. Pidge slept in Hunk and Lance's room more often than not lately since she and Hunk liked to stay up most of the night talking about physics anyway.

"Night guys."

"Night Lance."

"Night weird guy sitting on my desk."

" _Good night Lance."_ Pidge repeated.

The next morning the mysterious guy had gone, luckily, and Lance managed to stay awake long enough to keep himself from drinking any hazardous liquids; so all in all, he counted the night as a success. The only thing wrong was that he now couldn't quite seem to shake the feeling that he was being watched.

Every time he turned a corner or happened by an empty room the little hairs on the back of his neck stood straight up, and the itch in the back of his mind intensified.

If Pidge and Hunk noticed they never said anything. They didn't seem to feel anything out of the ordinary, so Lance did his best to shove his heebie-jeebies back into the dark corners of his mind from which they'd crawled.

He'd read somewhere that certain drugs could make you paranoid or something, and considering he'd been hallucinating the night before, he made a vow not to eat any more suspicious party food from then on.

Still, by noon the paranoia still hadn't left him, and he was starting to become abnormally fidgety. Hunk finally commented when Lance dropped his pencil for the fourth time in one writing lecture.

"Hey, are you alright?" Lance startled as Hunk laid a hand on his shoulder, "You seem really jumpy this morning."

"Yeah," Lance frowned, "I think that brownie Nyma gave me might have actually been laced with something."

Hunk frowned, "The effects should have worn off, like, last night."

"I mean, I'm sure it's fine." Lance shrugged, though inwardly his anxiety doubled, "It's just like paranoia and stuff."

Hunk looked doubtful, but reluctantly turned back to the lecture with a heavy sigh.

To expend some of the nervous energy, Lance drummed his fingers against the table in front of him, ignoring the dirty looks from everyone around them, and tried his best to listen to the professor, though this proved impossible as his mind - and eyes - began to wander.

He nearly fell out of his chair a few moments later as he caught sight of the invisible guy from the night before sitting nonchalantly in one of the empty seats several down from them.

"Dude. Hunk!" Lance whispered, tugging on Hunk's sleeve, "That guy's back."

"What guy." Hunk asked without looking up from his notes.

"The invisible guy!" Lance kept tugging, "From our room!"

Hunk glanced up with an uneasy frown and followed Lance's gaze. He watched as Hunk's eyes roved back and forth along the rows around them before turning back to him in concern, "I don't see anyone with a mullet, Lance."

Lance nearly smacked himself, "He's like four seats down from us wearing a red crop jacket. He's literally staring right at us!"

Hunk frowned, "Lance are you sure you're feeling okay? You didn't like hit your head or anything?"

Lance opened his mouth to retort when the invisible guy suddenly shook his head and pressed a finger to his lips. Lance's jaw snapped shut, and he frowned in surprise. Could he hear them?

"Lance? Are you still seeing him?"

Lance turned back to Hunk, who was eyeing him suspiciously and shrugged, trying to seem a lot less shaken than he really was, "My head feels kinda funny I guess."

Hunk bit his lip worriedly, "Look, this class ends in five minutes, and after that I'm bringing you back to our room. Don't argue, it's that or the hospital."

"Yeah, okay." Lance glanced back to the guy, who was still staring at them with the same strange intensity from the night before, and swallowed thickly. He was now more convinced than ever that he wasn't hallucinating. "That sounds like a good idea."

Despite his earlier decision, when the class finally let out Hunk tried to pressure Lance into seeing a doctor, but Lance just shook him off. "I think I'm just going to go back to the dorm and try to sleep a little. If I'm not better later I'll go see someone."

He nodded reluctantly, though his anxiety was still apparent on his face, so Lance begrudgingly allowed Hunk to escort him back to their room.

He hesitated in the doorway as Lance did his best to usher him out, "I'll come check on you later, please just go to sleep okay?"

"Yeah _mom._ " Lance rolled his eyes, despite being secretly touched that Hunk would waste so much energy on him.

He plopped down on the bed in an attempt to make it seem like he was getting ready to sleep and shot Hunk an "I'm totally innocent please just leave now" smile as he shut the door behind him hesitantly.

When Hunk was finally gone Lance sighed in relief and counted in his head just to be sure. When he hit ten, Lance turned to the mysterious mullet guy, who had followed them all the way from the lecture hall, glaring, "Do you need something?"

"So you _can_ see me." The guy seemed almost surprised, even though Lance had literally pointed him out multiple times.

"Uh _yeah_ , I can see you." Lance folded his arms, "Why can't my friends?"

The guy shifted awkwardly as though he were uncomfortable, and eventually settled for leaning against Lance's desk with his arms folded, as if _he_ were the one in a strange situation.

"They can't see me because I'm a grim reaper."

"Yeah, _okay_. And I'm a mermaid." Lance flapped his arms around like he was swimming and the guy gave him a strange look.

"No seriously I'm a reaper," he hesitated, "like, of death… and stuff. My name's Keith."

"Pfft Keith? Keith the grim reaper?" Lance burst out laughing.

Keith grit his teeth, pulling out a small black notebook from his back pocket and shaking it in front of his face as Lance snorted, "You might want to stop laughing, considering you're going to die."


	2. Extension

After the initial shock wore off, and he was able to process the concept of being told he was about to die by a guy named _Keith,_ whose existence was still fairly questionable, Lance began to feel doubt and denial slowly creep into the corners of his mind.

"Okay then, Keith the Grim Reaper…" Lance folded his arms and dubiously eyed the slightly incredulous expression on Keith's face, "how exactly am I going to die?"

Keith simply shrugged, flipping through his little notebook for a moment before glancing back up, "Car crash."

"Yeah, well what if I don't drive tomorrow?" Lance felt more than slightly irritated by the nonchalance that Keith seemed to exude; this was his life they were talking about, and this guy acted like he saw this sort of thing every day.

Which, Lance supposed in retrospect, may have actually been the case. But that was beside the point.

Keith didn't miss a beat, "You'll get jumped in an alley."

"Then I'll stay home." Lance folded his arms petulantly.

"House fire." Keith replied, inspecting his nails.

"I'll just sit on a bench outside!"

"Rabid squirrel."

"What if-"

"Look," Keith stood, suddenly irritated, "no matter what, you die tomorrow."

"Oh come on," Lance felt panic begin to settle in the pit of his stomach as reality ran its icy fingers down the back of his neck, "there's gotta be some way to change that. Some sort of kill switch, abort button, _anything_?"

"Look." Keith frowned, seeming suddenly uncomfortable, "The only way you can get out of dying tomorrow is if there's something you were meant to do. Like, I'm talking serious _unfinished business_."

"Oh great," Lance grinned, cracking his knuckles, "'cause I've got tons of that."

Keith raised a potentially regretful eyebrow, "Like what?"

"Dude, I'm twenty one." Lance smirked, not missing the way Keith seemed to be physically restraining himself from rolling his eyes, "I haven't done anything on my bucket list."

Keith folded his arms, "Name one thing."

Lance rubbed his neck as his brain grasped for an idea, "I've never tried out for the swim team."

"Too small."

"I've never been to New Zealand?"

Keith pinched the bridge of his nose, "If we gave extensions to everyone who hadn't been somewhere, no one would ever die and everyone would constantly travel."

"I've never gone skydiving!" Lance threw up his hands in frustration; Keith was making things needlessly difficult.

"Look. Lance." Keith fixed him with a controlled glare, "This can't just be some dumb thing that happens to pop into your head; it has to be something that would make your life meaningless without."

"Love."

Keith blinked, taken aback by his quick response, "What?"

Lance bit his lip, glancing down at his hands, which were nervously toying with the edge of the blanket, "I've never been in love."

They stared at one another for a tense moment, as Lance silently willed him to accept this excuse, before Keith raised one eyebrow skeptically, "… Lame."

"Shut up!" Lance hoped the room was dim enough that Keith couldn't see his embarrassed blush, "Can I get the extension or not?"

Keith flipped through his little book for a few seconds, muttering quietly to himself, before sighing and reaching into his back pocket, "Hold on, I'll call Shiro."

He pulled out a little black phone, and Lance watched on curiously as he dialed a number and held it to his ear.

"So… you get good service on that thing?" Lance smirked, "Who's your provider, Reapers R Us?"

"Shut up. Oh! No not you Shiro!" Keith glared as Lance cracked up laughing, and motioned for him to be quiet, "Yeah. Yeah, I just have a quick question. Okay."

He hung up and slid the phone back into his pocket, turning to Lance irritatedly, "I hate you."

"Keith!"

Lance jumped as a new person appeared in the room. This one was a good foot taller than Keith, and decked in all black. Part of his hair had turned white and he seemed to have an arm made out of metal, though Lance figured it would be rude to ask. "You really shouldn't talk to the clients like that."

"But Shiro-"

"Wait, so just, let me get this straight." Lance raised his eyebrows as they both turned to him in surprise, "You can _teleport_ , but you still have to communicate through _flip phones_?"

Keith sighed in exasperation, "Lance Shiro, Shiro Lance. Lance is going to die tomorrow."

"Hopefully not!" Lance piped up.

"Right, hopefully not." Keith nodded placatingly, "Also, he can apparently see us."

Shiro nodded thoughtfully, "Yeah, that happens sometimes even if we don't choose to let them see us. Did you even read the manual?"

Keith shrugged, "I skimmed. Anyway, Lance wants to get an extension."

Shiro raised an eyebrow and turned to Lance, who suddenly felt ridiculous, asking if he could get an extension for love, "I… uh…"

"Lance? Buddy?"

Lance jumped guiltily, and whipped around to find Hunk and Pidge standing in the open doorway, "Who're you talking to?"

Lance glanced to the pair of reapers leaning against his desk, and then back at Hunk and Pidge in the doorway and smacked himself in the forehead, "No one guys, just playing out an argument in my head."

"Oh not again." Hunk sighed, clearly relieved.

Pidge however, didn't seem quite convinced, "What was the argument about?"

"Uh," Lance floundered for a moment, but eventually decided upon honesty, or at least something close to it, "How I'm going to die."

"You're arguing with yourself over how you're going to die?" Hunk and Pidge raised an eyebrow at one another incredulously, and Lance had to admit that it wasn't one of his better cover stories.

Lance heard a snicker from behind him, and fought off the urge to glare back at Keith.

"Uh, yeah, actually I am." Lance rubbed the back of his neck, "My anxiety says car accident, and my common sense says heart attack… what do you guys think?"

Pidge and Hunk glanced at one another. Pidge replied "Car accident." At the same time Hunk replied "Heart attack."

"Wait, wait," Pidge made a stopping motion with her hands, "Can I change my answer to "mauled by Nyma," or "beaten up by Rolo?""

"No, you can't," Lance glared at his two best friends, "And for the record, I'm totally over Nyma."

Pidge rolled her eyes in disbelief, and Lance's patience wore out as he heard another snicker from Keith.

"Alright, that's it!" Lance ushered them toward the door, "Lance needs Lance Time, so you two just go work on some machine or experiment or something in Pidge's room for an hour or two. Don't argue, I happen to know that right now is cutting into your nerd time, and I wouldn't want to deprive you of that."

"Wait a minute," Hunk paused in the doorway, carefully studying Lance's guilty expression, and he knew he was screwed; nothing ever got by Hunk.

"You're acting really strange, and you've never kicked us out like-" He paused and gasped dramatically, "You're sexiling us!"

"Yes!" Lance grabbed onto the opportunity with both hands, "I am actually, so if you could y'know…"

He made the universal "skedaddle" motion with his hands, and Pidge and Hunk snickered to one another, "So… Who is it?"

"Who is who?"

"Uh," Hunk raised an eyebrow at him, "the person you're… y'know…"

"Oh!" Lance floundered for a moment before his eyes met Keith's in the mirror on the wall by the door, "It's this guy named Keith from one of my bio classes, you've never met him."

Pidge and Hunk exchanged another glance, and Lance really wished they would stop doing that. To his immense relief, Pidge finally shrugged and turned to leave, "I expect zero details later."

"Ditto." Hunk nodded, but he paused a moment on the threshold, and if he hadn't looked as anxious as he had Lance probably would have literally screamed in frustration, "Look, man, are you sure you're alright? I'm sure this Keith guy wouldn't mind if you rescheduled-"

"Yeah Hunk, I'm fine." Lance grinned forcefully, hoping it seemed at least slightly genuine, "I slept off whatever that was."

"Okay," Hunk bit his lip, "If you're sure-"

"Totally," Lance clapped a hand on his shoulder, and Hunk's expression cleared slightly, "If I need you I'll call you, I promise. Alright?"

Hunk nodded, "Alright. I mean it about the details thing though, I do _not_ need another detailed description."

"Got it big guy." Lance winked at him and Hunk left, shaking his head in defeat.

Lance carefully shut the door behind him, leaning against it, and turning back to the two reapers with great reluctance. A small part of him hoped they'd have disappeared, but the universe seemed particularly determined to screw him up, down, and sideways as he met Keith's vaguely confused expression.

"What?" Lance frowned, and Keith cocked his head to the side curiously.

"Sexiling?"

Lance covered his mouth to prevent his surprised laugh from escaping, "It's, uh… it's when you kick someone out of your dorm room so you can have sex uninterrupted."

"Wait..."

Lance watched as the gears in Keith's head churned slowly, and Shiro covered a smirk with his prosthetic hand. Finally, he could tell it clicked as Keith's expression turned livid, "YOU TOLD YOUR FRIENDS WE'RE FUCKING?!"

"Relax, it's not like they know you." Lance smirked at him, and Keith's murderous expression dialed up another notch.

"YOU-"

Keith growled as Shiro held him back with a vaguely apologetic grimace, "Sorry about him, he knows it's the best you could have come up with on such short notice… Anyway, what's that extension you wanted?"

"Right, uh…" Lance scratched the back of his neck, still watching Keith's homicidal expression.

"He wants to find love." Keith spoke up derisively, and Lance glared at him.

"Oh, alright." Shiro nodded.

"Wait what?!" Keith gaped at him and Lance had the urge to stick out his tongue.

"Allura says that in most cases finding love is a valid reason for an extension. Something about the meaning of life, or, no… The ultimate answer to life, the universe, and everything?" Shiro scratched the back of his head, "I don't know, it's something along those lines… anyway, how long do you estimate it'll take you to find love?"

Lance gaped at them, "You're asking me to estimate…? You do realize that it could take a while, right?"

Shiro grimaced, "The longer your estimation, the less likely it is that your extension will be approved."

"I don't know," Lance shrugged emphatically, feeling distinctly overwhelmed for what seemed like the millionth time that day, "I don't plan to stay alive forever, just cheat death for a little bit."

Lance blinked as Keith and Shiro both flinched at the same time, and Shiro motioned for him to be quiet, "Yeah, let's avoid using the "c" word for now."

"Huh?"

"The bosses up top really don't like it."

"All… right…" Lance tapped his foot anxiously, choosing to drop the subject for the time being, "But seriously though, I really have no idea how long it'll take."

"Just say a year," Keith rolled his eyes, "It's not like they pay that close attention anyway."

"You can tell her a year." Shiro raised an eyebrow at him.

"Shiro," Keith gave him a pleading look and Lance was confused, "She's more likely to listen to you."

"Nope, this is your case, you have to go talk to her."

"Fine." Keith rolled his eyes and abruptly popped out of existence, causing Lance to jump in surprise.

Shiro rolled his eyes affectionately, "Well, sorry again about him. He'll probably come back to tell you whether or not you got the extension, but if you don't die tomorrow, just assume you did."

Shiro shot him a small smile before vanishing and Lance couldn't help but feel like he wasn't in the best of hands.

Lance's mind raced as he was suddenly faced with the silence of an empty room, and he suddenly wished Hunk were there to crack a joke or just to make any sort of noise.

He paced about for a little while, trying to expel nervous energy as he attempted to corral his thoughts, but the silence in the room around him only served to rev up his nerves.

He was immensely relieved when Hunk finally wandered back in at around three a.m. and pestered him with questions about Keith, despite his earlier adamancy about not wanting details.

"He's a dick, and he's a prick, and he's a cock." Lance smirked and Hunk covered his ears, "What more is there to say?"

"Nevermind. I take it back, I want to know nothing!"

Lance snickered as Hunk shook his head and pulled on pajamas. Even if his mind was still reeling, Hunk's presence in the room was calming, if not for his company then simply for the normalcy.

He briefly debated telling Hunk about his encounter with Keith and Shiro, but ultimately decided against it. Hunk would just drag him by his ears to the nearest psychiatric ward, and deep down Lance knew that this was something he would have to resolve on his own.

After simply chatting for a little while, Hunk's yawns threatened to swallow them both whole, and Lance reluctantly allowed him to turn off the light, claiming he was tired as well, even though his anxiety felt like a bucket of ice water poured down his back.

His mind rebelled against the notion of sleep, and every time he so much as blinked he expected to see Keith pop into existence, informing him that sorry, there would be no extension, and would he like the blue coffin, or the red one?

As he sat alone in the darkness, listening to Hunk's quiet breathing, he finally allowed himself to delve into the craziness that was his day.

A small part of him wanted to believe that it was all just some misunderstanding. Maybe Keith had fucked up and visited the wrong person. Maybe he was in a coma, and this was all just some weird projection of his own subconscious.

If so, Lance thought wryly, he had a pretty messed up subconscious.

Keith was definitely one of the many aspects of this situation that Lance could have done without, even if the guy was decent enough to look at. He wondered vaguely what he had ever done in life to deserve _Keith_ as a grim reaper.

Though, they hadn't seemed altogether that organized, so he supposed maybe it was just the _un_ luck of the draw.

There was so much he still wanted to do, and the fact that he didn't even know whether or not he was destined to die the next day threatened to cleave his brain in two.

If he made it through the next twenty four hours without developing a stress ulcer it would be a miracle.

He didn't even want to begin to contemplate his extension. How was he supposed to find love in the span of one year? Keith had seemed rather nonchalant about the whole due date thing, and he _had_ mentioned that they didn't pay that close attention…

Lance bit his lip, squeezing his eyes shut against the darkness. He would have to be smart about this. Squeeze all the time he could out of it, and if he was lucky…

Lance didn't want to think about the depressing prospect, but at this point, his best option was to never fall in love.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hmmm, wonder how that's going to work out…
> 
> Sorry about the delay! The next chapter should be up in a day or two…
> 
> Thank you for reading, comments are always welcome!


	3. Turning Point

Lance awoke the next day to a messily scrawled note on his pillow with just the words “Good luck. We’re watching.”

Well that’s not creepy _at all_. Lance grumbled to himself, shooting the ceiling an unamused glance, and wondering vaguely if reapers actually lived in the sky.

This thought was quickly pushed from his mind as the relief flooded in, and Lance slumped back onto his bed, bracing his head in his hands. His mind hadn’t quite allowed him to comprehend just how incredibly stressed he had been, and he felt physically tired as the tension leaked from his chest.

Lance sucked in a deep breath, silently composing himself, and shooting the ceiling one last suspicious glance before standing to get dressed. According to his phone he’d accidentally slept in until one; which, considering the stress from the night before was entirely unsurprising.

Grabbing his bag, he headed for the door, checking his texts from Hunk. He and Pidge were already at the café, and apparently they wanted to grab a coffee with him before he started his shift. This wasn’t unusual, though he _was_ kind of surprised Hunk hadn’t woken him up.

Tiredly, he made his way out of the dorm building and toward the main road; cursing, for the millionth time, his college’s policy that students weren't allowed cars until senior year. It was just plain inconvenient.

As he walked, he shut his eyes against the sunlight beating down on him, trying to amass his jumbled thoughts into at least a decent plan of action. He knew what he was going to have to do; though he also knew it was possible that he was risking much more than he was bargaining for... but it was his _life_ on the line here, wasn’t it? What’s more important than milking all the time he could with his friends and family?

If they were watching him then he couldn’t afford to make it look like he was slacking off. The last thing he needed was to piss off Keith and end up slipping on a puddle and cracking his head open.

As Lance walked into the café, he was met with the sight of Hunk and Pidge perched at a table by the door. The two of them were practically staring down a guy sitting across from them. The guy seemed like your average run of the mill frat boy; the only remarkable thing about him was the hostility he seemed to be eliciting from Hunk and Pidge.

Sensing danger, Lance hurried over, “Hey guys! Who’s this?”

The three of them glanced up at him in confusion, “Uh, Keith?” Hunk raised an eyebrow.

“Uh, no?” Lance raised a matching eyebrow, wondering what the heck was going on.

“Dude you gotta help me,” The guy – Keith, Lance supposed – was staring up at him pleadingly, “the small one keeps threatening me??”

Lance glared at Pidge, who simply shrugged, sipping at her latte nonchalantly. He smacked his forehead, turning a placating smile to Not-Keith, “Hey man, sorry about this, I think they have the wrong person, so you’re free to go.”

Not-Keith sighed in relief and jumped up, before pausing, “Wait, but what about that stuff you guys found on my computer-“

“Don’t worry about it.” Pidge spoke up.

“But-“

“I said don’t worry about it.” Pidge narrowed her eyes at him and Not-Keith nodded hastily, practically running from the café.

“What the hell.” Lance braced his hands on his hips, “I thought I told you two to stop intimidating everyone I date!”

“We weren’t going to originally,” Hunk shrugged, “But you should’ve _seen_ the dirt we found on his computer-“

“I really don’t want to know.” Lance held up a hand hurriedly, “But for the record, you got the wrong Keith.”

“Oh come on, he was the only “Keith” in any of your classes.” Pidge frowned, “If this guy's from your class, then why isn’t he in the computer system?”

Lance spread his hands, hoping they would take his fake cluelessness at face value, “How should I know? Maybe he joined the class last minute, it _is_ only the second week.”

Pidge still seemed suspicious so Lance, sensing impending disaster, turned quickly to Hunk, “Hey you know what? What do you say the three of us go out later? I’m in the mood to meet people.”

“I don’t know Lance,” Hunk sighed audibly, “We just went to a party the other day, and Pidge isn’t even of age yet-“

“Oh come on! It’ll be fun! It’s Saturday, which means Shay will be there.” Lance wiggled his eyebrows suggestively and Pidge snickered.

“Shut up!” He could hear the smile in Hunk’s voice, “She took off tonight for her brother’s birthday, and besides, I still think you should be resting after whatever that was from the party-“

“Dude, Hunk, we’ve been over this.” Lance picked at his fingernails absently, “I’m _fine_. I feel fine, I seem fine, I _look_ fine,” He winked and Hunk groaned, “Please? I’m pretty sure this is the first time Pidge has actually left the lab in two weeks… We don’t have to get hammered, let’s just go hang out!”

“That’s what you say every time,” Lance nearly smacked his forehead, as Pidge folded her arms “And we have to work on that project for Professor Slav… Hey maybe you should see if Actual-Keith wants to go… Or did things not end well?”

Lance physically cringed, “No, no, things ended out fine, I just don’t think it’s really gonna work between us, you know?”

“Sorry man…” Hunk patted his shoulder, “Look we can’t go out, but you’re free to come hang out with us in the lab, just no eating or drinking this time, Kolivan got really mad last time you got chip crumbs on the lab bench.”

“You know Hunk as fun as that sounds, I’m going to have to pass.” Lance drummed his fingers nervously against the table, “I’ll probably just watch a movie on my laptop or something.”

“Sorry man.”

“Hey, no it’s no big deal. I’ll come hang out with you guys in the lab tomorrow, I just gotta get away from schoolwork for a little while.”

“Ugh I know what you mean…” Hunk paused, “Look just stop by if you get lonely, okay?”

“Okay, got it, mom.” Lance really hoped Keith wasn’t listening in to their conversation as he stood to start his shift.

Even if he couldn’t convince Hunk, he would have to go out later anyway. He didn’t want Keith to think he was slacking off, especially if they were watching him... Lance really didn’t like the sound of the “bosses up top.” He waved goodbye to Pidge and Hunk, and made his way behind the counter, shooting a finger gun at his coworker as he passed her.

“Hey,” She leaned in conspiratorially, “Who was that guy with Pidge and Hunk? He seemed kinda cute.”

“Not you too, Plax...” Lance smacked his forehead, before getting an idea, “Hey, do you maybe want to go hang out later?”

Her expression immediately morphed into a sad mixture of pity and awkwardness, “Aw Lance, I can’t tonight. Florona wanted me to help her with a paper on hypnosis for her psych class. I’m sorry.”

Lance waved a hand through the air in what he hoped was a nonchalant gesture, “Hey no that’s fine, I was just wondering.”

 _Damn it._ Lance thought as he headed to the back to change into his apron. She would have been a great cover, especially considering the fact that their casual banter was commonly mistaken for flirting.

His three hour shift ended quicker than he would have liked, and Lance waved at Plaxum as he headed out, wondering how on earth he was going to be able to pretend to flirt without actually flirting.

This was going to be a long night.

Before heading out, he stopped back at his room, dumping his bag and changing into an outfit he deemed nice but unassuming, and headed out reluctantly, sending Hunk one last plea text because, as a rule, hanging out at the bar was much more fun with company.

Lance quickly recalled this particular concept after about half an hour sitting by himself with a drink. He briefly considered flirting with the bar tender, after the guy had shot him the fifth pitying look in as many minutes, but quickly decided against it. That really would be just _too_ pathetic.

His chance finally came when a girl he thought he might have vaguely recognized from one of his classes leaned up against the bar beside him, shooting him an interested glance as she waited for her drink.

“Hey girl,” Lance flashed her a smile, gratified when she smiled back, “Are you an astronaut, because your body is out of this world!”

She crinkled her nose, and Lance fought off the need to rub the back of his neck sheepishly as she frowned, “What?”

“Um,” Lance blinked, “you know, like an astronaut? Space? Out of this world?”

“Oh, that’s funny.” She smiled awkwardly, hurrying away when the bartender handed her the drink, shooting him yet another look of pity.

“Yeah, yeah.” Lance sighed heavily, slumping against the bar; he must really be off his game tonight… that line always worked. In the end it didn’t matter though; he only had to look like he was trying.

“You call that flirting?”

“Oh _god_.” He nearly choked on his drink as Keith slid into the stool beside his, wearing a distinctly self satisfied expression as Lance scrambled for a napkin to wipe at the drips on his shirt, “What are you doing here?”

A horrifying thought struck him, “Wait, they didn’t cancel my-“

“Nope.” Keith shook his head, before propping it up on one fist and playing with the cup of straws in front of them, “Allura says I’m stuck with you until you die. Apparently they think I need a “lesson in patience.”” He scowled, “Whatever that means.”

This is bad. This is bad. This is bad… Lance hurried to compose his expression... How was he supposed to fake flirt with Keith glued to his hip!?

Lance nodded slightly, trying his best not to look over at Keith - the invisible guy - next to him. Even if his days were numbered Lance knew most of the people in the bar and he definitely didn’t want the entire school thinking he was crazy.

“Seriously though,” Keith continued to play absently with the straws, “Have you never flirted before?”

“That line works perfectly fine, I’ll have you know.” Lance grumbled through gritted teeth, smiling when the bartender shot him an odd look, “Maybe she just had a lot on her mind.”

Keith snorted, “A lot meaning “not you.””

Lance frowned into his glass, fighting off the urge to snap at him. Even if he was trying _not_ to find a date, it still wouldn’t look good for him to challenge thin air to fight him.

“Look,” Keith sighed, “Can you just flirt, or “do your thing” or whatever, so we can leave?”

“”Lesson in patience…” I’m seeing it now.” Lance rolled his eyes, stalling, “I’m assuming you don’t have many bars wherever you… _live_ , but that’s not how that works. You can’t just wink at someone and score a date.”

Sensing Keith’s confused look, Lance continued quietly, “Besides, this would all be much easier if everyone could see and hear you, not just me.”

“Oh they can.” Keith smirked at him and signaled to the bartender, pointing to a drink from the shelf, “They’ve been able to since I got here. As reapers we can choose who can hear and see us.” He paused and eyed Lance dubiously, “Well, most of the time.”

Lance’s jaw dropped, and he turned to Keith directly for the first time, “What?! So you’re telling me I’ve been going to painstaking measures to make it look like I’m not crazy, and everyone’s been able to see you this whole time??”

“Yep.” Keith accepted his drink from the guy behind the bar and sipped at it gleefully, “Though to be fair you weren’t doing a very good job staying incognito in the first place.”

Lance simply stared at him dumbfounded, and Keith seemed to be trying not to laugh at his expression. Lance could admit the guy didn’t look half bad without his usual scowl.

At least he knew for sure now that he wasn’t imagining this whole nightmare. Well that, or he was in a coma and _everything_ was a drug induced hallucination.

“Asshole.” Lance scowled, and Keith looked altogether too pleased with himself, “So like, what are you even going to do?”

Keith shrugged, “Observe I guess? Allura says I’m supposed to help you solve your unfinished business.”

“So you’re like, what, my wingman?” Lance glanced at him in amusement, “Pun totally intended.”

Keith shot him a dry look, “Reapers don’t have wings,” He continued when Lance opened his mouth, “and we don’t sprout them when they’re needed either. This isn’t Death Note.”

Lance snorted, “Weeb.”

“You recognized the reference!” Keith scowled at him, and Lance stuck out his tongue.

They sat in awkward silence for a moment, as Keith scowled at him, and Lance scrambled for something to distract him with. Finally, his eyes settled on Keith’s drink.

“So, you can like eat food and stuff?” Lance eyed Keith’s glass dubiously. He was stalling for time to come up with a plan, but luckily Keith didn’t seem to be too observant of this fact as he frowned thoughtfully.

“Yeah, it just doesn’t do anything.” Keith shrugged, “Alcohol still has some effect, but other than that eating and drinking is pretty pointless.”

“Dude, you could eat like a hundred bags of chips and not gain a pound,” Lance gaped at him, “Why the hell wouldn’t you?”

Keith raised an eyebrow at him, and went back to stirring the ice around in the bottom of his drink with the straw, “Shouldn’t you be flirting or something?”

“I mean you’re my wingman.” Lance nudged him, “Hop to it.”

Keith gave him a wry look so Lance shrugged and hopped off his stool, walking up to a group of girls and shooting finger guns at the nearest one. She was tall with curly brown hair and so totally out of his league, but Lance grinned at her anyway.

“Hey angel, you come here often?”

She shot him a disgusted look and Lance held his hands up in surrender, backing away slowly, “Okay, okay, I get it.”

He walked back over to Keith, shaking his head with an expression that said “oops.”

Keith raised an eyebrow at him, glancing back at the girl, “You didn’t try very hard.”

“Keith, my friend,” Lance shook his head emphatically and slung an arm around his shoulder, slightly surprised when it actually made contact, “I’m just going to go ahead and assume that you’re woefully unpracticed in the ways of flirting. See, that there was a tactic of mine; first you say hi, maybe compliment them a little, and then you back away, show them that you’ll give them their space.”

“It just looked like you flirted with her and she told you to beat it.”

“Oh Keith,” Lance shook his head, and Keith’s expression grew impossibly more confused, “You have a lot to learn.”

Lance had to admit, it was pretty fun messing with the guy. He wasn’t sure how long Keith had been dead, but with the amount of game he was demonstrating it must have been at least a few decades.

After a bit of needling, and a Long Island iced tea, Lance managed to convince Keith to help him instead of just sitting there watching like a weirdo.

Currently, he’d convinced him to go up to a girl from his intro to philosophy class. She was sitting alone, and from the way she kept watching the bathroom she was waiting for her friends to come back. Keith’s mission was to play wingman and talk him up. Lance had given him a few pointers, none of which would help him in the slightest. He watched gleefully as Keith smiled at her, his expression painful.

“Wow.” Lance raised his eyebrows as Keith plunked down dejectedly beside him, “You _are_ rusty.”

“Shut up.” Keith rolled his eyes, “It’s because I’m trying to get them for you. If I was flirting for myself I’d be more successful.”

“Okay then.” Lance leaned closer to him, smelling a challenge, “Whoever has the most numbers by the end of the night wins.”

Keith raised an eyebrow at him, “Aren’t we just supposed to be getting numbers for you?”

“Ready… set…” Lance stood from his stool, smirking as Keith bristled, hopping off his own stool, “Go!”

He hurried off, and was satisfied as he saw Keith do the same, and applauded himself for such an ingenious, albeit impromptu, plan.

The more numbers he got, the more convinced Keith would be that he was actually trying. Plus, there was no way he’d be able to tell whether or not Lance actually texted any of the numbers.

“Hey,” Lance pulled out a chair next to a guy sitting by himself, “So I’m having a competition with my friend over there to see who can get more numbers, mind giving me yours?”

The guy shrugged amusedly, pulling a napkin towards himself, “Yeah, sure.”

Lance pumped a fist in the air, shooting Keith a victorious smile over his shoulder.

In response Keith waved three napkins through the air in front of him, smirking when Lance’s jaw dropped. No way was he losing to a dead guy with a mullet.

He pulled out the big guns, literally flexing at one point or another, but by the end of the night their counts were pretty close.

“Seven, eight… nine!” Lance held his numbers out proudly in front of him as they walked down the sidewalk, smirking at Keith as he counted his own.

“Eight.” Keith pouted as Lance skipped victorious circles around him, though Lance thought he could detect an amused smile threatening the corners of his mouth.

“Looks like this one’s a win for Lancey-Lance.” Lance stuck out his tongue as Keith muttered the words “Lancey-Lance” sarcastically under his breath.

Lance stumbled a little over a crack in the pavement and Keith caught him by the shoulder. They were both decently drunk, but Lance was too smug to care. His plan had worked, and Keith hadn’t mentioned the words “unfinished business” in over two hours, so Lance was excited.

“So do you have to follow me back to my dorm, or what?” Lance raised an eyebrow as they neared the building, “Like how far does this “lesson in patience” extend?”

Keith shrugged, “Probably not, but I don’t really have anything better to do.”

Lance shrugged, he couldn’t be expected to flirt from his dorm room, and if he were being quite honest, he wouldn’t mind the company. Especially since Hunk would probably stay at the lab with Pidge for a while longer.

“Okay fine, but if I’m going to hang with you,” Keith swiped at him as Lance poked him on the nose, “I’m going to have to get _a lot_ more drunk.”

Keith nodded thoughtfully, before popping out of existence, and Lance nearly screamed as he popped back suddenly with a bottle of strawberry wine.

“Fuck don’t do that.” Lance held a hand against his chest.

Keith just shrugged, “This isn’t very strong, but Shiro loves it, and I’m not much of a drinker-“

“Dude, are you kidding,” Lance made grabby hands for the bottle, “That stuff tastes like candy.”

An hour - and half the bottle - later, Keith and Lance found themselves on the floor in his room giggling over some joke Lance had told, but couldn’t quite remember.

“…Banana.” Lance frowned, “Or… wait…”

“You already said banana.” Keith snickered, taking another swig from the bottle.

“No but that’s the joke.” Lance grabbed for the bottle as Keith held it just out of his reach, “You say “banana” a bunch of times until it gets annoying and then on the last time, you say “orange you glad I didn’t say banana?””

“But what if it was annoying from the start?”

“Well then you’re no fun.” Lance stuck his tongue out, “The ladies love it.”

“Oh man,” Keith burst out laughing, “You’re never going to get a date if you keep using jokes like that.”

“Well, duh.” Lance tapped his forehead sagely, making another grab for the bottle.

“Wait,” Keith frowned, and Lance snatched the bottle while he was distracted, “What do you mean?”

Lance hummed happily, taking a swig from the bottle, and failing to notice as Keith’s expression sobered, “Lance, what are you talking about?”

“If I try I die, right?” Lance giggled at his own rhyme, “So why try?”

“Wait, let me get this straight.” Keith stood abruptly, and Lance scrambled away from his livid expression, “You’re not even _trying_ to find love?”

Oh shit. Lance backpedaled groggily, frowning as he tried to figure out where he went wrong.

Keith began pacing agitatedly, muttering to himself, before turning back to Lance, “I knew I shouldn’t have trusted you. Whatever happens next is your fault.”

With that he abruptly vanished, and Lance felt dread settle into the pit in the bottom of his stomach, “Keith?”

He called out Keith’s name a couple times, but nothing happened, and Lance started to feel panic settle into the pit of his stomach. Racing to the bathroom he puked, his mind and his stomach both reeling.

He walked slowly back to the room, glancing over his shoulder the whole way, though when nothing exploded, he eventually started to settle down a bit. After an hour had passed and nothing catastrophic happened, he tried to convince himself that Shiro had taken care of Keith’s little temper tantrum.

He jumped nearly a foot in the air as his phone rang, but it was just Hunk, and Lance found himself wondering nervously what a reaper’s number would look like if Keith actually did call him.

“Lance?” Hunk’s voice sounded off as Lance picked up, and his heart pounded nervously.

“Hey Hunk. What’s up?”

“I’m at the hospital,” Hunk’s voice cracked, and Lance’s heart stopped, “It’s Pidge.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Dun dun dun... I mean come on, there had to be some sort of consequence, right?


	4. The Stage is Set

Lance felt cold as he sat slumped in the hard-plastic chair by Pidge’s hospital bed. It had been a few hours since they’d gotten the news, but none of them quite knew how to react.

They were college students. Death was supposed to be a faraway thing... Something they contemplated in their intro to philosophy class, but didn’t actually have to confront on a personal level.

Now in the span of just a few days, Lance had been confronted with it twice, and yet somehow the second time was infinitely worse.

Pidge was deep in denial, tapping away at her laptop like everything was normal, but Lance couldn’t stop staring at the IV slowly dripping, connected to her hand by a long clear tube. Supposedly the drugs were meant to make her comfortable. Until the end.

He gulped, trying to ward away the tears. That had been Pidge’s one rule as he and Hunk had entered the room: no crying at her bedside.

The only reason why they’d been allowed in the room at all was because Pidge had convinced the computer system to recognize them as her next of kin, but that was easily reversible, she’d warned, pointing directly at Hunk, who since then had to leave the room several times.

He was currently on his fourth “bathroom run” and Lance was starting to feel the shock wear off, as he watched the IV slowly drip… drip… drip…

“Stop.”

“Huh?” Lance glanced up to Pidge glaring at him, just as Hunk reentered the room.

“You’re thinking about it again.”

“What am I supposed to think about?” Lance hissed, feeling immediately guilty when Pidge winced, “Sorry, I’m just…” He sniffled and Pidge narrowed her eyes pointedly.

“I have anywhere from two weeks to two months.” Pidge sighed rubbing her eyes tiredly, “I don’t want to spend them crying.”

Lance nodded hastily, and Hunk discreetly wiped his nose on his sleeve.

According to the doctor it had come out of nowhere. The opposite of a medical miracle. Pidge had been studying in the lab with Hunk when she’d started to feel dizzy, and it was all downhill from there.

The actual medical name was long and complicated - probably derived from latin – but in the end what it boiled down to were the words _cancer_ and _inoperable_.

Well, that along with a few choice statistics and well-meaning probabilities of survival, with just a dash of hopelessness to bring out the flavor.

Lance shivered, glaring ruefully at the clean white walls. He’d always hated hospitals, though he supposed he wasn’t really special in that regard. He could tell Hunk in particular was quite obviously growing increasingly uncomfortable, but he also knew that the big guy was too nice to ever say it out loud.

Pidge was still typing away at her computer, but Lance somehow knew it was just busy work. She was only doing what she knew. He himself was getting antsy, though he refrained from tapping his foot, since he knew that was one of Pidge’s pet peeves.

This was around the time when Lance noticed Keith suddenly standing in the corner, arms folded, and expression sour. He shot to his feet and, at Pidge and Hunk’s questioning stares, motioned to the door, “I’m, uh, just going to get a drink really quick.”

He left hurriedly, ignoring Pidge’s assuming grimace, and hoping that Keith had gotten his message. He had, and Lance ducked into the nearest cleaning closet, shutting the door quickly behind them and wheeling about to face Keith angrily.

“When.”

“A month from now.” Keith sighed and ran a hand through his hair agitatedly, “That was the latest I could book it. The bosses up top aren’t very happy with us.”

“Bosses?” Lance frowned, which turned quickly into a scowl, “Oh wait let me guess, you can’t talk about that can you?”

“Technically only Allura knows who or where they are.”

“I knew it…” Lance paced back and forth agitatedly, kicking a mop bucket out of anger, “This is all my fault.”

“Yeah,” Keith folded his arms sourly, “It kind of is.”

Lance rounded on him angrily, “Oh is it!? You’re the one who told!”

Keith’s eyes narrowed, “I had to!” At Lance’s dubious expression he ran a hand through his hair agitatedly, “I literally had to. We don’t have a choice with stuff like that, you can’t hide things from the bosses. I don’t make the rules, Lance!”

Lance squared his shoulders, meeting Keith’s eyes grimly, “Take me instead.”

“That’s not how that works.” Keith eyed Lance’s dubious expression, “Hey. It’s not like I wanted this to happen! You were granted your extension, it can’t be reversed!”

“Then why is Pidge dying!?”

“Because you cheated the system.” Keith was pacing, “There has to be consequences, and since they can’t reverse your extension, they’re giving you an incentive.”

“So,” Lance’s expression deadpanned as he realized what Keith was implying, “what you’re saying is that I have a month to find love, or Pidge dies!?”

“Yeah.” Keith folded his arms, “This is why I told you not to use the “c” word.”

“The “c” word.” Lance stared at him incredulously. He didn’t know quite else what to say, but he was saved the trouble as another person popped into existence in the already cramped broom closet.

“Ahh!” Lance screamed and tripped over a mop handle, wincing as a bucket landed on his head and he bumped into the shelf.

“You son of a bitch!” He glanced up to find a vaguely familiar looking guy with slightly longer brown hair looming over him, his expression livid.

The stranger suddenly lunged toward him, though Keith quickly jumped in between them, holding up his hands, “Matt! We talked about this!”

“I don’t care,” Matt grit his teeth, “He killed Katie.”

“Not yet.” Keith frowned, “He has a month.”

Lance frowned in confusion. Where had he heard the name Matt before? And why did he call Pidge Katie?

“Oh shit!” Lance sprung to his feet, tossing the mop bucket off his head, “You’re Pidge’s brother!”

Matt folded his arms, “Yeah, dipshit. And now thanks to you, I’m assigned to my own sister.”

Lance’s heart died a little inside his chest, “I-“

“Matt!” Shiro popped up in between them, nearly crushing Lance against the wall as the closet’s maximum occupancy was impinged upon for the third time, “Allura said not to bother Lance, he didn’t know what would happen, there was no way to-“

“Oh there wasn’t?” Matt growled, “You’re telling me that if that idiot had the decency to die like a normal person, my sister would still be lying in there suffering?”

“Matt.” Shiro rubbed a tired hand down his face, “Please just let me handle this.”

Matt shot Lance one last glare before popping out. Lance sucked in a deep breath as Shiro shifted away from him.

“Look,” He started, rubbing the back of his neck as Shiro turned to him, “I know this is all my fault, and I’m trying my best to fix it-“

Shiro held up a hand, “We know you didn’t intend for this to happen, but the bottom line is you messed up.” Lance winced, “You have a month to fix it, but after that…”

He trailed off and Lance fought back the tears threatening his vision.

He felt a hand on his shoulder, and he glanced up to find Shiro looking down at him with kind eyes, “Everyone makes mistakes. Maybe not this big, but you’ll find a way out of it. I have faith in you, and Keith will be here to help you as much as possible. Right Keith?”

He glanced back at Keith, who was leaning up against the wall, arms folded, “I guess.”

“There, see?” Shiro’s smile seemed a little strained, but Lance could tell he meant well, “I’m gonna go talk to Allura about Matt. Good luck.”

With that he popped back out of existence, and Lance was left alone with Keith, who sighed heavily.

“Well this is a royal mess.” Lance chuckled humorlessly, rubbing the heels of his hands against his eye sockets.

“You can say that again.”

Lance was about to retort when the closet door opened, and a very surprised looking janitor cussed him out for being where he wasn’t supposed to be. Lance hurried back to Pidge’s room, ignoring Keith’s derisive snort.

“Why do you get to be invisible?” Lance frowned.

“Because if you were the invisible one you’d be unbearable.”

“I would not!” Lance glared at Keith, smiling awkwardly as a nurse shot him a suspicious look. If he managed to make it through the month without ending up in a psych ward he’d be lucky.

He made to reenter Pidge’s room, but stopped short in the doorway as he noticed Matt leaning up against the far wall, his arms folded.

“Lance?” Hunk frowned, “What’s up?” Lance glanced between him and Matt, who made a cutting motion across his throat and gulped.

He felt Keith tug a little at his jacket sleeve and sighed, “I just remembered I told Plax earlier I’d take her shift… I don’t want to leave, but…” He tried not to glance at Matt.

Hunk raised an eyebrow, but Pidge made a shooing motion with her hands, “Just go. Go and take your tears with you.”

Lance nodded, “I’ll be back later.”

“Bring pizza rolls!”

Lance managed a small smile before walking away awkwardly, booking it the second he got out of eyesight.

He breathed a sigh of relief as the hospital doors whooshed shut behind him, and glanced back dubiously. Keith put a hand on his shoulder, “You did the right thing.”

“I know.” Lance brushed him off, “I have a lot of work to do.”

Three hours later found him at the coffee shop; he hadn’t intended to actually take over his shift, but he had no better ideas.

Keith was nowhere to be seen, in fact Lance figured he’d disappeared sometime after he’d left the hospital, but he was too numb to care.

He was miserable, and it was showing through his weak attempts at flirting, as hard as he was trying not to let it.

“Annalise?” Lance called out the name on a frozen caramel latte, winking at the girl that hopped up eagerly from a table nearby, “So,” He grinned at her, hoping it looked realistic, “I was going to write my number on your cup, but I seem to have lost it… could I get yours instead?”

Annalise frowned in confusion, “You lost… my cup?” She glanced down at the cup in her hand and Lance cringed inwardly.

“No, I lost my _number_ … Is there any chance I could get yours?” He crossed his fingers and prayed his pickup line was clear enough that time.

“Oh, _oh…”_  Her eyes widened as she picked up on his meaning and she frowned sadly, “I’m so sorry, but I have a boyfriend actually.” She waved awkwardly at a guy who just happened to have walked through the door.

“Oh, that’s alright.” Lance rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly and tried not to die as he took her boyfriend’s order a moment later.

Lance tried a few more times, but he thought that they could tell his heart wasn’t in it. After about half an hour, Plax walked in to start her shift and immediately noticed him behind the counter.

“Hey, Lance.”

Lance frowned as she gave him an odd look, gesturing to the back, and he sighed, following her. It had been slow for a few minutes and the usual rush wasn’t due to start for another hour.

“Hey,” She laid a hand on his shoulder, “I heard about Pidge… God Lance, I’m so sorry.”

Lance nodded numbly, holding her hand when she offered it, “I’m sorry I just can’t-“

“I know, I know.” She shushed him, “I don’t even know why you came in today. Why don’t you take the day off? I’m sure the boss won’t mind.”

Lance didn’t know how to explain that he only came so he could flirt with the customers, so he just nodded quietly, pulling at the knot in his apron.

Walking out into the afternoon heat felt suffocating, and as Lance began in the direction of his dorm building he felt his breathing quicken, his heart racing in his chest. Sensing impending disaster, he turned toward the park, pulling out his phone as he went.

“Uh…” Lance glanced at the sky, hoping this was going to work, “Keith? Hey man, you there?”

He spoke into the receiver of his phone, crossing his fingers that Keith would get his message. Sure enough, he glanced to the side a moment later to find the reaper casually leaning against a bench, arms folded.

“What do you want Lance?”

“Oh, you know,” Lance shrugged, talking into the receiver of the phone, secretly relieved when Keith followed him toward the park, “I was just taking a walk, thought I’d call.”

“Why aren’t you out flirting or something?” Keith was following along, but Lance couldn’t bring himself to meet his eyes, so instead he studied the trees around them as they entered the park, which was luckily mostly empty around them.

“I can’t right now…” He cleared his throat, “I tried to go to the café, but Plax sent me home… I just-“

He trailed off trying to find the right words to convey the fact that he was lost. He hadn’t thought for a second it was possible for him to miraculously find love in a year, and now he had to in a month? Or else Pidge dies?

His first instinct was to be in the hospital with her, and he felt like a dick being anywhere else; but he’d be an even bigger dick to stay by her side, something he wasn’t able to explain to her or anyone else as much as he wanted to.

No matter what way this mess went, he had less than a month left with one of his best friends, and he couldn’t even spend it in her company?

Even if he did pull this off, that meant losing everything, his friends, his family, his _life…_ and he didn’t even have time to mourn it...

Lance flinched as the phone was pulled away from his ear, and Keith laid a hand on his shoulder, “Hey. I’m not invisible anymore, Lance, look at me.”

Lance reluctantly glanced over, horrified as his tears began to spill over. Keith looked mildly horrified that Lance was crying, but managed to quickly regain his usual composure.

“Look, I know this is a shitty situation, but Shiro seems to genuinely believe that you’re capable of doing this-“

“Oh yeah because that makes me feel better.” Lance rolled his eyes, wiping his sleeve hastily across them, “I have to go find a way to die so that my friend won’t and I-“ He trailed off uncertainly.

“It’s okay to feel conflicted.” Keith frowned, “It’s okay to not want to die.”

“Am I a horrible person for even thinking it?” Lance let out a shaky breath and Keith tightened the hand on his shoulder.

“I just said it’s okay… and it’s not like you’re just sitting back and letting her die in your place.”

“No but I’m standing with you in a park feeling sorry for myself while Pidge is sitting in the hospital, literally dying because of me.” He took a couple deep breaths, slowly calming himself down.

“Well…” Keith shrugged, pulling his hand away and meeting Lance’s gaze head on, “Then stop thinking, and just do something about it.”

Lance held his gaze for a moment or two before realizing suddenly that the tears had stopped. Somehow, Keith’s shitty advice had worked, and Lance felt his confidence slowly but surely gathering momentum.

Keith raised an eyebrow in a silent challenge, and Lance sighed, straightening his shoulders, “Well come on then, mullet, what are we waiting for?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So since my last story was focused on Keith trying NOT to die, I thought I’d change it up a bit and make this one about Lance TRYING to die
> 
> (I have a rather twisted mind lol…)
> 
> Sorry this chapter is so late, but hey, happy New Year ;)


	5. Do you play quidditch?

“Hey man, do you play quidditch? Because you sure look like a keeper.” Lance winked at the guy in front of him at the sink, holding out his cup for a refill.

The guy turned and gave him a once over, “I see you’re a seeker… Luckily I happen to be a chaser myself.” He winked and Lance’s hopes perked up.

Harry Potter pickup lines were always a safe bet, but he’d never gotten anyone to actually respond with one before.

“So, what brings you here?” The guy poured each of them a shot and Lance watched as he downed his, pretending to do the same.

“Oh you know,” He smiled coyly, rolling back his shoulders in a casual shrug, thrilled as the guy’s eyes trailed along his exposed collarbone, “just looking for some fun. The name’s Lance by the way.”

“Nice,” he grinned, “Hey I’m-“

“Brandon! Yo dude!” They both turned as a huge muscular guy pushed his way through the crowd, clapping Brandon on the shoulder, “Hey man, you gotta help me out, Derek just totally puked in my car.”

“Ugh, that’s the second time this week…” Brandon rolled his eyes, “Sure dude, I’ll come help clean up.” He clapped the big guy on the back and turned to Lance apologetically, “Sorry man, I gotta go. I’ll try to find you later though, okay?” He winked, and Lance tried to look like he believed him.

The guy sprinted off with his friend leaving Lance alone at the sink with a cup full of headache. Lance waited a moment or two before pouring the majority of it down the drain. He needed a clear head more than anything else.

It had been a week, and Lance’s confidence was waning more quickly than he’d anticipated. He knew it was going to take a little time, probably more time than he had, but this was just pathetic.

So far he’d been on one date with a girl that hadn’t returned his calls or texts since, and had nearly gone home with two other people, one of which was a guy who wasn’t out of the closet yet and didn’t want anything other than a one night stand.

The other was a girl from one of his classes who, as it turned out, already had a boyfriend. Honestly with that one, Lance was just glad he wasn’t sporting another bloody nose.

Overall, Lance’s confidence in himself was waning, and if he was being honest with himself it was going to take a lot more than one date or a one night stand for him to fall in love with someone.

 “Strike three… It looks like you’re out.” Keith leaned up against the counter next to him, holding his own cup and making a face that Lance had come to recognize as overstimulation.

He found that Keith wasn’t one for frat parties, or crowds of people, or really loud pop music, or anything fun apparently.

And yet, he had still accompanied Lance to every bar and party within a three mile radius of Altea University with only mild complaining. Out loud at least.

If he was being honest though, Lance really appreciated Keith’s company, even if he did act like Lance was personally using him as a pincushion.

He bit back a laugh as he watched Keith grimace and shrink back to avoid his feet being trampled on by a group of girls trying to make their way around in a pack.

Over the past week, Keith had had his back in surprising ways. After his little pep talk in the park, he’d gone back to being his usual surly self, but Lance found that having someone with him, and knowing that he had Keith’s (grudging) support, was strangely comforting.

Especially when he was slowly beginning to unlock new parts of Keith’s personality. Every so often, the guy would catch him by surprise with his dry witty sense of humor, and Lance would catch himself wondering what it would have been like to know Keith while he was alive.

It was a pity. Lance thought, if they had met back then they probably would have been friends. Or probably more like enemies-made-friends, granted, but either way Lance could easily imagine Keith as a coffee addicted, study-holic college student sitting next to him in one of his classes.

It was a pity they had to end up this way.

“I almost had him!” Lance sighed, sipping forlornly from his cup, momentarily forgetting the fact he despised vodka.

“Hey if it makes you feel any better, at least this time it wasn’t directly your fault.” Keith snickered and Lance dropped his jaw in mock indignation.

“Hey! I’ll have you know, the only reason Rebecca wasn’t all over me is because there was that one time in freshman year -“

“Ugh,” Keith rolled his eyes, “I do NOT need to hear another one of your “I got drunk with a girl and woke up the next day naked in the middle of west quad” stories.”

“Shut up man, that was ONE…Hey wait a second…” Lance turned on his heel as he spotted a familiar head bobbing carefully through the crowd.

Chewing his lip, he glanced back at Keith’s curious expression, “This is probably a terrible idea but… I’ll be right back.” He picked his way carefully over and tapped the girl’s shoulder.

“Hey girl, I think you might be a star, because I can’t seem to stop orbiting around you…” Lance shouted over the jarring resonance of nicki minaj with the base cranked up to 100, keeping at least a foot away just in case she might attack him.

She barely glanced up from her phone as she sighed, edging away from him in the crowded room, “Well in that case, I think you might want to extend the eccentricity of your orbit.”

“Haha alright that’s… I’ll just…” Lance backed away rubbing the back of his neck sheepishly, that had been a long shot anyway. He should have known better than to try out space pickup lines on an astronomy minor.

Particularly when said astronomy minor was president of the taekwondo club.

“Awww Lance!”

Lance was shaken out of his reverie as another girl casually slung an arm around his shoulders, “What did I tell you about Axca? That black hole is in MY orbit.”

“Honestly Ezor?” Lance rolled his eyes, “I doubt Axca is in _anybody’s_ orbit.”

Ezor pretended to pout, “Hey now, a girl can dream…”

Lance snorted, “You must have big dreams then.”

Ezor giggled playfully before leveling him with a more serious look, “So, Lance,” She smiled hesitantly and he knew what was coming next, “I heard about Pidge… You okay? I’m surprised to see you here.”

Of course… Lance nearly smacked himself. Ezor knew exactly what he was going through… Well, maybe not exactly, but she had lost someone, _two_ someone’s last year.

An image of Lotor flashed through Lance’s mind.

Lance turned his eyes to watch Axca laugh at something their friend Zethrid had said. It was still strange to see the three of them without their fourth and fifth members.

Altea University, while being on the larger end of the population spectrum, was a relatively close knit community.

It had been nearly a year and a half since the incident, but Lance could still remember the stiff atmosphere that had stuck around campus for weeks after news of the accident had spread.

Lance had never really been a big fan of Lotor, but even he felt bad at the way everyone pinned the blame for the crash on him. Even his father, the university’s president, had gone on record stating he had no doubt the crash was due to his son’s “criminal tendencies.”

Which was a bit harsh in Lance’s mind. He may have thought of Lotor as a slimeball but that didn’t make the guy a criminal.

Narti also hadn’t exactly been at the top of Lance’s bff list, it was still horrible to watch the remaining three members of their group go through the loss.

“Yeah, you know…” Lance shrugged, pulling his thoughts back to the present, trying not to let his feelings show on his face, “I’m just trying to deal.”

 “Oh, so you’re trying to distract yourself.” Ezor nodded knowingly, “Just don’t let it creep up on you. You have to come to terms at some point.”

Lance raised an eyebrow, slightly surprised by her words of wisdom, but her attention was already somewhere else.

“Oops! Gotta go… It was nice talking to you Lance!” Ezor retracted her arm, bolting off through the crowd, “Zethrid! Put him down!”

Lance just stood there stunned for a moment, watching the commotion and thinking about her advice.

“What was that all about?” Lance jumped. He’d forgotten Keith for a brief moment.

“Nothing… Just some old boring history.” He waved a hand and Keith just raised an eyebrow and shrugged, “Come on, let’s go catch some air.”

Keith nodded gratefully and the two of them wormed their way to the door through the crowded apartment. The air in the hallway was like emerging from a sauna and Lance sucked in a deep breath to rid his lungs of the leftover stench of weed and cheap beer.

Keith seemed relieved to be out of the party and just leaned up against the wall nonchalantly.

“You okay?” Keith was eyeing him suspiciously and Lance ran a hand through his sweaty hair.

“Yeah, it’s just that I forgot about what happened last year.”

At his questioning look, Lance quickly explained the crash and Keith frowned.

“The name Lotor sounds familiar.”

Lance shrugged, “I mean I can imagine you’ve met a lot of people in your… not- life.”

Keith rolled his eyes affectionately, “You’d be surprised. I’m not exactly the first person to volunteer for cases.”

Lance deadpanned, “You don’t say.”

He laughed as Keith punched him on the shoulder and glanced back at the apartment they’d just left, trying not to think about how little he wanted to go back in there.

“So is this it then?” Keith asked, clearly having read his expression, “Should we call it quits for the night?”

“No way man, it’s only like…” Lance checked the time on his phone before hastily putting it away again, “Okay look… just five more minutes.”

Keith rolled his eyes but Lance was already scanning the hallway for people.

He nodded to a small group of fine arts students he vaguely recognized from that one week in the beginning of sophomore year when he’d been convinced his path lay in theater.

Keith rolled his eyes but followed him over anyway. He was kind of the worst wingman in the world, but it was still a comfort having him around. Other than the times he was a total dick.

Once, a girl came up to him asking for Keith’s number, and Lance had nearly thrown a tantrum in outrage at the smug look on Keith’s face. Of _course,_ the guy could get girls without even trying. He wasn’t even alive for fuck’s sake!

“Hey guys,” Lance sauntered up to the group, slinging his arm around the shoulders of the nearest guy, “How’s it hangin?”

The girl to his right, the one with bright purple hair, Olia he thought her name was, smiled at him welcomingly, “Hey Lance, how’ve ya been?”

 “Oh you know… Same as always...” Lance rubbed the back of his neck, “Hey, have you met my friend Keith?”

He waved to Keith awkwardly and Keith made an expression that was halfway between “kill me please” and “I’ll kill you later.”

They chatted for a few minutes and it struck Lance that he’d forgotten how cool Olia was. He hadn’t really talked to her much since he’d switched back to biochem, but it was a shame really; they had a lot of the same interest after all.

After a minute or two he remembered that there were other people in the room and cleared his throat awkwardly, “So, uh… what were you guys talking about then?”

“We were just talking about our theories for Star Wars episode IX.”

“Ooh, our favorite… right Keith?” He glanced back to Keith’s confused expression, instantly regretting welcoming him into the conversation.

“Episode IX?”

“Yeah, man, the newest one coming out.” Lance gave him a look, “You know the one set after the Last Jedi.”

“The Last…” Keith didn’t seem to get his hint and Olia’s eyes went wide.

“Woah, you haven’t heard of the new Star Wars yet? Have you lived under a rock for the past five years?”

“I… uh…” Keith looked at Lance with a look that said “please help.”

Lance bit his lip to keep from laughing and slung his arm around Keith’s shoulder instead, “My boy Keith here’s kind of a shut in, you know, not really a movie buff.” He bopped Keith’s nose jokingly, earning himself a glare, “All he ever does is read, he probably wouldn’t even know the difference between Star Trek and Interstellar.”

“I know star trek!” Keith folded his arms indignantly, “It’s like my favorite series.”

“Oh who’s your favorite ship captain?” Olia asked excitedly, “Mine’s Picard.”

“Who the hell-“

“Would choose Picard over Kirk?” Lance finished Keith’s sentence hastily, shooting him a warning glance, “I mean come on, you gotta go with the classics here.”

Olia nodded sagely, “Reboot or Original series?”

Lance laughed at the expression on Keith’s face, “Unpopular opinion here, but I like Chris Pine… I know Keith here’s a Shatner fan though.”

Keith nodded gratefully at the familiar name, “Uh, yeah I like William Shatner as Kirk.”

Olia was giving them a strange look so Lance pulled his arm from Keith’s shoulders and flashed her a smile, “I’d love to talk to you more about space movies sometime, could I get your number by any chance?”

Olia’s eyebrow quirked up momentarily, and she seemed to hesitate, glancing behind him to where Keith was standing just out of his eyeshot.

“Uh, maybe some other time Lance, huh?” She smiled tentatively, placing a hand on his shoulder, “maybe you should look somewhere else for the time being.”

“Aw, okay.” Lance puffed out his lip sadly, “I guess we’ll see you around then.” He could have sworn he saw her wink at Keith before they turned away from the group.

“Jeez man,” Lance rolled his eyes, “Leave some for me why don’t you?”

 “What?” Keith frowned at him, and Lance almost envied his endearing obliviousness.

“Nothing man… How old are you anyway?” Lance frowned. He’d heard of the original Star Trek but not the more recent ones so he had to have been alive in the late 1960’s at least…

Keith looked distinctly uncomfortable at the question, “Look, why don’t you just get your flirt on or whatever so we can leave.”

They both glanced at the mass of people around him and Lance had never felt more alone.

“Or we could just leave now. Tonight’s a bust anyway.” Lance crumpled up his solo cup, tossing it into the garbage can nearby, feeling his doubts creep up again unbidden.

“Hey.” He turned as Keith touched his shoulder hesitantly, “It’s barely been a week.”

Lance winced, wondering how Keith had automatically known exactly what he was thinking.

“Yeah but a week is a week.” He shrugged off Keith’s hand, turning to meet his eyes, “If I’m going to fall in love with someone, I’m going to need time to get to know the person, and the less time I have, the less likely that’s even going to happen.”

Keith quirked an eyebrow at him, “Lance, you’re enough of a hopeless romantic to fall in love at first sight.”

“Hey!” Lance protested, though he still felt his hopes lift, and wondered at Keith’s ability to instantly lighten his mood.

“Whatever man, let’s go-“

“Lance!”

He turned in dismay to find Hunk pushing his way through the crowd toward him, feeling rather than seeing Keith vanish from beside him.

“Dude, I’ve been looking for you everywhere.” Hunk was panting, “Iverson posted the exam grades up on the board again… this is the first time you haven’t spent all night in the hallway waiting for them, so I got worried-”

“Yeah yeah Hunk.” Lance waved him off, “Look man, there are more important things in the world than grades.”

“Yeah but Lance…” Hunk bit his lip, “You failed it.”

Lance winced, feeling the normal feeling of failure creep up his chest, but pushed it down hurriedly. What did it matter anyway? If all went well he’d be dead in a month.

“I’ll try harder next time.” He gave Hunk a hard look when Hunk started to protest.

Apparently, the classes he’d been skipping were starting to take their toll.

Hunk shook his head, “Come on, man-“

“Hey, is this guy bothering you?”

Lance and Hunk glanced over in surprise; it was the Harry Potter pick up line guy from before.

“Nah man,” Lance bit his lip to keep from laughing at the look on Hunk’s face, “Just a dispute between roommates…”

Brandon still seemed to be eyeing Hunk suspiciously, so Lance laid a hand on his arm, smiling imploringly, “Actually, what do you say the two of us get out of here, my room’s open if you’d like… Right Hunk?”

Hunk frowned at him, his face clearly saying “I don’t like this, but if this is your way of coping then I’ll butt out for now.”

“Come on.” Lance guided a slightly bewildered looking Brandon through the crowd toward the door, “My room’s not that far.”

-

When Lance woke up early the next morning Brandon was gone. No note, not even a scrawled number on a scrap sheet of paper.

As he got up he stretched, thinking that he could equip a pirate ship with all the knots in his back, and trying his best to edge out the feeling of yet another failure; of yet another setback from the corners of his mind.

Patience yields focus. Or at least that’s the bullshit Keith kept spouting whenever he voiced his doubts out loud. Lance had asked him one time where he’d gotten that saying from - he didn’t really seem like a mantra guy - but the only response he’d gotten was the usual cold shoulder.

Seriously, that guy was locked up tighter than a bank safe.

If he’d had the time or mental energy Lance thought he would have tried his best to crack that safe, but at the expense of the life of one of his closest friends he decided he’d better pass on that particular project.

As he stretched out the knots in his back he heard the door open and turned to find Hunk peeking in.

“You’re alone, right?”

Lance sighed, “Yes, Hunk, I’m alone.”

“Oh good,” Hunk opened the door fully, padding over to sit on the bed beside Lance, “You’re lucky Pidge gave me a key to her room.”

He said this lightly, but Lance felt terrible for kicking him out the night before.

“Look man,” He glanced up sheepishly, “I’m sorry I acted like a brat last night. I just need some time to work things out in my own way.”

Hunk nodded as though he had already considered this, “I know, Lance, I’m just worried. I don’t want to lose both of my best friends.” Lance winced as Hunk leaned over to hug him.

“I know big guy,” Lance patted him awkwardly, feeling terrible, “you don’t have to worry about me.”

He was relieved that Hunk hadn’t started sniffling yet. When Hunk cried, Lance cried, and when Lance cried everything turned into a gross wet mess.

When Hunk finally leaned back he glanced around, “So I guess it didn’t work out with that guy last night, huh?”

 “Eh,” Lance shrugged, running a hand through his hair and remembering he hadn’t showered yet, “He was gone when I woke up, I don’t think it’s going anywhere.”

“Aw, I’m sorry man.” Hunk patted his shoulder, “There’s always more fish in the sea.”

“Yeah, sure.” Lance laughed halfheartedly, not failing to notice Hunk’s nervous lip bite as stood from the bed to get dressed, “Hey let me just grab my bag before we go, I have some work to catch up on.”

Hunk seemed to perk up at this, and Lance’s spirits fell further with the knowledge that he wouldn’t actually be doing any work during their visit.

He hadn’t been in to visit Pidge in a day or two, so when they walked in the door half an hour later, nothing could prepare him for the sight of Mr. and Mrs. Holt sitting in twin chairs beside the hospital bed.

Lance probably would have stopped dead in his tracks and run the other way if it hadn’t been for the sudden appearance of Keith beside him, a hand encouragingly pushing him forwards into the room.

Pidge seemed to be asleep still, and the Holts glanced up from where they’d been talking in hushed tones, their eyes falling immediately to the flowers in Lances arms that he’d insisted on stopping for.

“Uh, hey Mr. and Mrs…“ Lance trailed off as Mrs. Holt stood up.

“Lance, Hunk!” She walked over and hugged each of them gently, and Lance fought back tears, “It’s nice to see you two… even under the circumstances.” She bit her lip, and Lance couldn’t unsee the bags under her eyes and the box of tissues just barely visible in the pocket of her purse.

“Mrs. Holt.” Lance bit his lip, “I’m so sorr-“

“Oh honey,” She waved a hand through the air, reaching up to wipe hastily at her eyes, “Don’t apologize for something that can’t possibly be your fault.”

Lance swallowed nervously and felt terrible as she continued to wipe at her eyes.

“I’m sorry for behaving like this, it’s just… especially so soon after Matt-“ Mrs. Holt bit her lip and turned away.

Lance glanced up to Matt, who was leaning against the wall with his arms folded, glaring daggers at him. He was the main reason that Lance didn’t visit Pidge as often as he would have liked.

The guilt alone was bad enough, but Matt, standing invisible in the corner glaring at him like he’d personally injected his sister with cancer cells was like the physical manifestation of his failures as a human being.

 “Don’t worry about him.” Keith had told him one day, “Matt’s really a pretty cool guy… and actually he’s a bit like you sometimes it’s just…” He sighed, “Deep down Matt blames himself for leaving her so early.

Pidge had never really told them about how her brother died, so after learning Matt’s backstory in it’s fullest Lance couldn’t bring himself to hate the guy.

He thought Matt could sense his resignation because the glares lessened after that, and he stopped insulting him out loud, but Lance could still see the blame behind his eyes. Like now for instance.

He felt like he could read minds as he watched Matt take in the sight of his parents crying over his baby sister, their last child in the hospital.

_Bastard. Why couldn’t you just have the decency to die._

Lance willed the tears away for what felt like the millionth time, and turned back to the distraught family.

Mr. Holt had stood to place an arm gently around his wife’s shoulders and the two of them smiled at him and Hunk gently, “I think maybe it’s time we go catch some air, we’ll let the two of you visit in the meantime.”

They left quietly, Matt disappearing with them, leaving Lance feeling stranded in the doorway as Hunk gingerly sat down in one of the vacated seats.

“Sorry about that, guys.”

They both jumped as Pidge sat up in bed, reaching for her glasses on the bedside table, “They’ve been really emotional since they got here.”

Hunk snorted, “Well yeah, for obvious reasons.”

Lance rolled his eyes playfully and dumped the flowers in Pidge’s lap unceremoniously, “Pretending to be asleep Pidgeon? That’s just cold.”

She rolled her eyes back at him, “I just needed a break from the tears, you know?” She reached for the vase on her bedside table, “Could you have gotten anymore gaudy flowers?”

“Only the gaudiest for you.” Lance winked, and for a second everything felt like it was normal.

Their visit lasted a while and the three of them managed to keep up a semblance of normalcy. The Holts came back after a few minutes, but to Lance’s relief, they seemed to have run out of tears for the time being.

For a brief moment he could imagine everything was back to normal; like it was spring break and they were staying over at the Holts’ house because theirs were too far to travel back and forth.

When they eventually left the hospital, Lance and Hunk walked in silence for a little while, both feeling a bit better for the first time in days.

When they entered the dorms Lance stretched his hands above his head as they approached their room, “I can’t believe I actually got all my work done.”

He was lying obviously. He’d pretended to work on his calc for a while in the hospital, and Hunk had seemed relieved that Lance was finally returning to the land of schoolwork once again.

“Yeah, it’s almost a miracle.” Hunk chuckled, “Hey I was thinking of making some cookies later, what do you say we see if the auditorium is open and watch some walking dead?”

Every molecule in Lance’s body was screaming yes, but as he watched Hunk gather his baking supplies his brain took hold of his heart strings once again.

 “I don’t know man, tonight’s not the best…” Lance shrugged, feeling guilty as Hunk’s shoulders sagged.

“Oh okay, that’s alright.” Hunk shrugged, continuing to gather baking supplies from his desk, “I guess I could go visit Shay at work anyway.”

 “Yeah, that sounds nice… Oh and hey,” He caught Hunk’s arm, feeling like a terrible person, “I need the room again tonight.”

“Dude, this is the third time this week!” Hunk narrowed his eyes, “Is it the guy from yesterday?”

“Uh, no, it’s Keith again.” Lance shrugged and Hunk raised an eyebrow.

“I thought you said it wasn’t going to work out with Keith?”

“What can I say? He’s a madman in bed.” He winked and bit back a laugh as Keith looked livid behind Hunk. “You and Shay have been dating for months! Why don’t you just ask her if you can stay at her place for the night?”

Hunk eyed him suspiciously, “You’re doing this on purpose, aren’t you?”

“Hey,” Lance pouted, “What am I, if not the best wingman for my best friend?”

Hunk leveled him with an unimpressed eyebrow, “Look, Lance, I get that this is your way of dealing with everything, but why don’t you just take a break tonight.”

Lance’s nonchalant expression felt like a mask made of ice as he clapped Hunk on the shoulder, “I don’t know what you’re talking about man, I just want to have a couple nights of fun, you know?”

 “Fine, man, you do what you want, but when you want to talk for real you know where we are.” Hunk sighed, moving toward the door, “I’m still making cookies though. Also, I want to know ZERO details, as per our usual agreement.”

“Okay fine, but you’re missing out.” Lance winked suggestively and shut the door carefully, turning to Keith’s irritated expression.

“I hate you.”

“I know.” Lance ran a tired hand down his face and pushed away from the door with determination, “Now help me get ready.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the long wait between chapters... this one just kept getting longer and longer... I can't control it lol
> 
> Thanks for all the comments, it's really motivating, and I love to hear feedback! Please let me know if this chapter felt a little choppy, or rushed, because I definitely felt like I could have developed some parts a little more...


	6. Waffle House, Anyone?

“You what?!” Hunk grit his teeth, and Lance winced, trying to shrink further against the door-frame.

“I quit my job at the café.”

He watched as Hunk stared at him incredulously, his expression switching rapidly between frustration and worry. Lance tried his best to look him in the eye, but it was becoming harder by the minute.

After what felt like an hour, Hunk sighed, running a hand through his hair, “Lance, first you start skipping all your classes and bringing random people home, and now this?”

“Look,” Lance frowned, knowing what this must seem like, “People deal with things in different ways-“

“Stop saying that!” Hunk sat down heavily on Lance’s bed, his eyes looking far too tired for someone his age, “you’re failing half of your classes… If Pidge knew-“

“But she doesn’t.” Lance leveled Hunk with a hard look, “And she’s not going to. Not unless you tell her, and we both know you’re not going to do that, so why don’t you just lay off?”

Hunk held his gaze for a moment before turning away, “Look Lance, I trust you. I just don’t want to see two of my friends’ lives wasted.”

If anything, that was the hardest part to deal with; his own best friend not being able to look him in the eye. Lance opened his mouth, but couldn’t seem to come up with an apt response.

Hunk stood and put a hand on his shoulder, “I’m going to class now… Just please think about this.”

With that he left the room, and Lance, feeling emptier than the dark pitiless void of space.

“It’s been three weeks.”

Lance didn’t turn at the sound of Keith’s voice just behind him, “I know.”

He leaned against the wall, letting out a breath he didn’t know he was holding. Keith was quiet for a minute and Lance almost thought he’d left, when he opened his eyes to find Keith leaning up against the wall directly opposite him.

“What?” Lance narrowed his eyes, and Keith shrugged.

“You know you’re doing the right thing here.”

“That doesn’t make it any easier on me… or Hunk for that matter.” Lance folded his arms, and Keith glanced away.

Lance felt automatically guilty. Pushing away his living friends was one thing. A necessity, as he kept telling himself. But Keith was the only one on his side at the moment, and he couldn’t afford to lose the surprising camaraderie they’d managed to stumble across.

They stood in silence for a moment before Keith finally sighed, “Alright, you’re clearly in a mood, why don’t we get some food or something and try to come up with a plan?”

“Fine.” Lance sighed, pushing away from the wall, “But only if it’s Waffle House.”

He had to keep himself from rolling his eyes as he heard Keith’s quietly confused, “Waffle House?”

The walk to the nearest Waffle House was quiet. Lance felt bad for snapping at both Hunk and Keith, and if he couldn’t make it up to Hunk he could at least try to clear some of the air with Keith.

“Hey, don’t you think this is kinda messed up?” Lance said suddenly, bringing up a topic that had been bothering him lately, and banking on conversation to lighten the mood.

Keith blinked in surprise, “What are you talking about?”

“Like,” Lance frowned, wondering how to phrase his thoughts, “if I die after I fall in love, won’t that just leave the other person miserable?”

“That’s assuming they love you back.”

“Hey!” Lance punched him in the arm, and Keith smirked.

“Anyway, I wouldn’t be questioning any of this if I were you, according to my calendar, you’re supposed to be dead already.” Keith pointed out, and Lance’s grin fell quickly.

“Right, well…” He scratched the back of his head awkwardly, and Keith seemed to realize he’d killed the mood, because he quickly backpedaled, “But I mean you fall in love with anyone who gives you attention so it’s not like they’re in any real danger.”

Lance smiled wryly back at him, “Nice save cowboy.”

“Cowboy?”

Keith looked confused and Lance smacked his forehead. Seriously, as fun as it was making fun of Keith, he almost felt bad for the guy sometimes.

“What, was sarcasm created after you died?”

Keith rolled his eyes, “No, but you were.”

“You’re kidding, right?” Lance’s eyebrows shot up, “Keith??”

Keith arched an eyebrow in a frustratingly evasive look, and opened the door for him.

Lance couldn’t tell if he was kidding or not, so he snorted awkwardly as they entered the restaurant, and the people at a table close to the door glanced up at him curiously. Lance wondered self-consciously if Keith was visible at the moment.

“I seriously need to get a cat collar for you or something…” He muttered as they chose a table near the door.

Keith frowned at him, “Why would I need a cat collar?”

Lance was saved the response as a waiter hurried over to take their orders. Lance studied Keith carefully as he hurriedly scanned the menu. Looking back, the Lance from three weeks ago would’ve laughed at the thought that they’d end up as close as they’d become.

He’d miss the mullet wielding idiot. He was currently staring hard out the window, his arms folded over the table, his usual pouty face in place. Lance had initially taken his resting bitch face as a sign of hostility, but he’d come to learn that it was just a mask.

Not a bad looking one though. If he weren’t dead, and Lance’s babysitter, Lance would’ve considered hitting on him. In fact, he did at one point if memory serves correctly.

At least his friends were under the impression that they’d slept together.

“What?”

Lance startled as he realized that Keith was watching him watch him, “Nothing, just wondering if you’d let me introduce you to Pidge and Hunk sometime.”

Keith’s eyes widened, “That’s so against the rules I don’t even know where to start-“

“Where does it say that exactly? It’s not like you’re assigned to them, or that we’re telling them what you are.” Lance frowned.

“But…” Keith trailed off, looking stuck.

Lance smirked, “They’re under the impression we’re fucking anyway.”

“Yeah but-“ He cut off as a waiter brought over their food, then whispered, “There’s a difference between you using me as a cover story, and me actually appearing in front of them.”

“You appeared in front of that waiter.” Lance raised an eyebrow, “And bought your weight in pancakes, apparently. Holy shit dude.”

“Says the guy who bought a milkshake at 10 a.m.” Keith raised an eyebrow, and Lance held a hand to his chest as if personally affronted.

“Strawberry milkshakes are for anytime of the day.” He gestured to the glass, “Just try some.”

Keith hesitated, blinking at the straw Lance had used, and then reached for his own. Lance tried really hard not to think about the fact that it looked like they were on a date, sharing a milkshake at 10 a.m.

Keith leaned back, leaving his straw in the glass almost defiantly, “Okay fine it’s good.”

Lance snorted, “I told you.”

Keith bit back one of his rare smiles, and Lance felt a sense of pride that he was able to pull an expression like that out of him.

He watched as Keith glanced behind him at the door, his smile shifting to a puzzled expression.

Hey, Lance!” Lance spun as he heard his name shouted from toward the door behind him. It was Brandon; the Harry Potter pick up guy from before.

“Oh, hey man.” Lance tried his best to smile, willing his face to stop heating up, “Uh… how’s it going?”

Brandon waved off his friends’ curious glances and stepped closer to the table, rubbing the back of his neck sheepishly, “Hey, I am so sorry about the other night. I woke up late and had to rush to soccer practice. I swear I didn’t notice I forgot to leave a note until I got to the locker rooms.”

Lance blinked in surprise, his hopes inflating, and shot a wide-eyed glance at Keith, who was looking just as surprised as him, “Oh! So you didn’t mean to-“

“No, no of course not.” Brandon grimaced, “I had a good time, and I don’t usually leave without at least saying goodbye…” he bit his lip, “Is there any way we could try again?”

Lance shot another wide-eyed glance at Keith without thinking, and Brandon glanced over as if noticing him for the first time, taking in the milkshake with two straws between them, “Oh shit, I’m sorry. This is such a mess, you’re probably on a date… I’ll just-“

He started to back away, and Keith leaned forward and smacked Lance’s arm, “Dude, what are you doing?”

“Oh! Right!” Lance scrambled up and Brandon looked hopeful again, “Wait, let me at least give you my number.”

He accepted Brandon’s phone excitedly, hoping he didn’t look too eager, and Brandon let out a sigh of relief, “So you and that guy…”

“Who, Keith?” Lance raised an eyebrow, “No way.”

Brandon grinned, accepting his phone back, “Well then I guess I’ll text you later, Lance.”

Lance nodded, unable to say anything further, and shakily made his way back to the table where Keith was waiting.

“Well that was painful to watch.” Keith looked like he was halfway between laughing and grimacing. Appropriate for what just happened.

Lance groaned and thumped his head on his arms, “Could I have been more awkward? Jesus…”

“Well on the bright side he seemed just as awkward and flustered, so at least you two will be an awkward couple together.”

Lance’s head shot up, and he grinned widely, hope suddenly surging up in his chest, “Keith do you know what this means?”

“That soccer players have low standards?”

“Keith,” Lance ignored his sarcastic tone, trying and failing to suppress a grin, “he could be the one.”

He didn’t miss the way Keith’s expression hardened momentarily, and he himself admitted that he felt a strange surge in his chest at the thought.

It was a bittersweet moment. Pidge might actually have a chance. And as for his newfound friendship with Keith… But that one was doomed either way. Lance settled back down, knocking Keith’s fork out of the way as he attempted to steal some of Lance’s waffle.

His heart lifted strangely, as he absorbed the fact that he might possibly, or rather hopefully, die within the week.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the short chapter! Ch 6 ended up being way too long, so I cut it up into two parts…  
> Anyway, enjoy this half, the other half will be up by sometime tomorrow :)  
> And remember, feedback is always encouraged!


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